Please Sign Our E-petition for a Specialist College in Scotland

It's been a really busy two weeks for the campaign, and we want to thank everyone who's supporting us, offering donations, and liking the Facebook page! Before I get into what we've got coming up, I'd like to direct your attention to the right and ask you to sign our e-petition. Hopefully, with enough voices behind us, we will get them to listen!

Courtesy of Carluke Gazette

Andrew's story is starting to permeate the media - last week, we were on the front cover of the local paper. We have now been interviewed and photographed by The Scottish Sun and Heather has written an article for the Times Educational Supplement. I'll update you when the articles are printed/online.

Excitingly, the campaign now has its very own mascot! It was designed by Helen of ArtFoundHelen and brought to life by Jules of JuJuStuff. We thought the ant was an apt symbol for Andrew, as it is very small, but very strong, and can achieve so much more when working with others. For a fun way to get involved with fundraising, we're running a competition to name this cuddly critter. Just send your suggestion to heathermcwilford(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk together with £1 via Paypal. The winner, who will be decided by Andrew himself, will get to give the mascot a loving home.

We have a couple of events coming up in the local community. First is the Cycle for Success at Strathclyde Country Park on Sunday 28th October. Andrew will be taking part himself on a specially adapted bike - here is a picture of him using one at a fun day three years ago.

Then we are holding a Family Fun Day and Fayre at Ravenstruther Hall on Saturday 10th November, with local crafts: jewellery, candles, cards etc, as well as a bouncy castle and facepainting. We've already filled the hall to capacity, and we're thrilled by the local support.

MSP (Member of Scottish Parliament) Claudia Beamish has expressed an interest in our cause, and will be meeting with Heather and Hannah at the Carers' Parliament event on 1st October.

Don't forget you can still donate items for our online Auction for Andrew - a massive thanks to all those who have already done so! The auction will start on Tuesday 2nd October at midnight GMT and run until Tuesday 9th October at 10pm GMT, so it's not far away. There's some great stuff - get those early Christmas presents in!

We also have a fantastic prize being offered by Barrowboy Trading - a fantastic LCD 28" flat screen Football TV! Raffle tickets are just £5 and can be bought by sending a Paypal payment to dk006e8503@blueyonder.co.uk. Looks pretty sweet, doesn't it?

As always, we are open to any more suggestions for fundraising - just get in touch via the comments or email. As you can see, there is a lot going on - I'm planning to do weekly updates on the blog from now on. Thanks again - we've got the snowball rolling now and hoping it will turn into an avalanche...

News and Andrew's Mum

Just popping in with a quick update. Pleased to say the campaign's been going brilliantly - as of now we're up to 91 likes on Facebook. Please go here to see all the news. We're also up to 23 items for our auction, and I'm offering a full book critique! Can I ask you again to please have a think about anything you'd like to donate. Go here to look at all the brilliant goodies we've got so far.

Cheesy pic on Brighton Pier

Andrew's sister Hannah has been invited to the first Carers Parliament on October 1st. This is an amazing opportunity as she will get to question the Scottish Parliament about the provision of specialist further education (or lack thereof) in Scotland. Andrew's mum has also submitted an online petition to the Scottish Government, and I'll let you all know when it's available for you to sign!

The local paper are coming to take Andrew's picture on Friday and the story will run next week. We've taken the plunge into Twitter too - please follow us, @NickPWilford and @HeatherWilford. We really want to keep the pressure up and make this a sustained campaign, as that's the only way we'll make a difference.

Andrew's mum has been feeling poorly the last few days, but all the support has pepped her up and I'm glad to say she's on the mend. She's been keeping up with the campaign in between bouts of rest!

Back soon with more updates...

Auction for Andrew

Hello. I'd like to draw your attention to an online auction that we're planning to hold to help raise funds and awareness for Andrew, and ask you a very special favour: if you can donate anything or ask anyone you know to do the same, it would be very much appreciated! I'm thinking signed books might be a neat idea, but really anything you can offer would be amazing. You can go to Andrew's Facebook page to see more updates, and here is an album of items that have already been donated.

We'll only be able to do this, and make a change to the status quo, with the help of people like you... and after all, how can you say no to this smile??